January 29, 2007

There are a few stories I want to share with you this month that got away until now; and maybe that's good, as it gives me a moment to step back to form a larger context in which to place them. They all took place on January 18th and involved things which I blogged about recently. There is a common thread running through the stories, of buildings as the focal point of larger personal and public issues. On that day; I sold the home I grew up in, saw Doug Aitken's 'sleepwalkers' at MoMA, and heard a radical vision for the redevelopment of ground-zero.

January 27, 2007

From across the pond comes this interesting post on global real estate pricing trends from the Overseas Property Blog. It seems that Estonia was the place to buy a home last year with a 59.4% increase in housing prices.

January 24, 2007

A couple of the most often asked questions that I hear when showing properties are: "Where's the closest garage?" and "Do you have any idea how much they charge?" Here's a tool that can help answer those two questions with a great level of choices and details. NYC Garages can help you to find a place to park your car on a monthly or daily basis; complete with maps and pricing.

January 24, 2007

An informal survey of my colleagues today, again revealed sustained, strong market activity since my last "shoe-leather" post a couple of weeks ago. Agents working in the field see the market's market momentum first hand. Attendance at open houses, and the number of offers tendered, give us a first reading of the market's temperature; and it's been feeling awfully warm as the weather outside finally gets colder.

January 13, 2007

We've got a couple here for both downtowners and uptowners. I'm pleased to highlight two new townhouse listings that represent unique value, in each of their neighborhoods; one in the East Village and the other on the way Upper East Side.

January 12, 2007

One of the the events that I'm looking forward to this month is an interplay of art, architecture and city life. Doug Aitken's 'sleepwalkers' is an enormous public work, that will be projected onto eight facades of the MoMA building.

January 11, 2007

Here's something for those of us who live and work downtown, plus everyone else interested in New York City. Starting on January 18th a new series of these outstanding lectures by authors, architects & scholars and sometimes all three.

January 9, 2007

The sidewalks were strewn with the discarded Christmas trees of 2006 this weekend. It was a reminder that the recent holiday season was over. Another sign was that that people shopping for homes were back from their vacations, and enjoying the unusually warm weather by participating in Sunday's ritual of the Open House. The attendance there is often first bounce that brokers get about the marketplace's momentum. It's the kind of shoe-leather impression, that provides a surprisingly accurate read; and the kind of market report that a broker blog can do best too. Indeed, as I arrived at the office, the morning coffee chatter was from agents who spoke about big turnouts at their properties this weekend.

January 8, 2007

The market is heating up again. In the third quarter of 2006 median prices across the board in Manhattan are up 6%, to $767,000 according to a report from 'The Real Estate Board of NY' released last month. The largest jumps were median prices in northern Manhattan and Upper East Side condos which were up 60% and 45% respectively. A 20% gain in co-op prices downtown, and a 13% increase on the Upper East Side were also noted. New York City is in a much stronger position than the nation overall.

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